Posts Tagged ‘Church’
River Valley Ranch: What’s Your Vantage Point?
January 24, 2012 | 
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I was privileged to be a part of a ministry to Middle and High-Schoolers this past weekend at River Valley Ranch in upstate Maryland, near the border of Pennsylvania. It was a pretty intense weekend called “Winter Meltdown.” It is a GGRREEAATTT weekend retreat for both the students AND the leaders and volunteers. The RVR staff takes care of everything so they can achieve their goal, which is
to provide a place free from the distractions of everyday life, where students and leaders can focus on God and build meaningful relationships with each other.
From my perspective, they did just that. I am posting my slide packs here, so if any of the youth leaders want to refer back to these, they can. Use everything at will!
If anyone needs a great camp to go to for any of several reasons, RVR is the place to be!
Posted in "Ruminations", Lessons Repository | 
Tags: Camp, Church, High School, Middle School, Perspective, River Valley Ranch, RVR, Sovereign Christ Church, Vantage Point, Winter Meltdown, Youth | 
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The Western Church is a Stepford Wife
Maybe you don’t know the premise of the story . . .
Essentially a community is designed and populated with robotic wives – perfect robotic wives, so their husbands can do what ever they want without the trappings of spousal accountability, commitment, humility, etc. It is: I create a world that appears to be like the real world, yet under the surface it is artificial . . . maybe sinister.
Remember that idolatry is really self-worship. That is, when one carves an idol, names the idol, places the idol and then decides (without the input of the idol, I might add) how the idol is to be worshipped – and yes, I’m talking about pseudo-pagan/animistic polity here – at the end of the day, who’s Creator; who’s Sovereign; who’s the real God? For the idolators, it’s themselves.
Let me lob another kernal into the popper before I get to the punch-line. It was C.S. Lewis in his The Four Loves, I think, that remarked in regards to love, that at the moment it becomes your god, it becomes your devil.
Now, with those two ideas in the hopper, let’s get back to the original. The church is messy and sometimes a mess. Why? What’s the problem? People.
Of course, they’re (we’re) the point also.
Posted in "Ruminations", Paradigm Shift, Sovereign Christ Church | Tags: Church, Churchianity, Jesus, Pride | 1 Comment »
The most subtle sin . . . self.
It was a phrase that just popped out today during our friends of the church plant meeting – “We worship the way we worship Jesus more than we just worship Jesus.”
If we look around we see it all the time – great emphasis on style, little emphasis on content. Even when we have solid content, the way that it is presented eclipses the message. I remember being at the T4G conference last year and when John Piper spoke, I literally thought the two guys directly in front of me were going to come out of their skin. The were shaking first at his appearance and then about every 30 seconds one would say to the other, “Hear how he said that? He’s awesome!” - Or some derivative of the like.
“Hear how he said that” . . .
This is Way Worship, not even real worship – not even real idolatry. It’s a cheat.
Posted in Lyrical Theology, Paradigm Shift, Sovereign Christ Church | Tags: Church, Churchianity, Lecrae, Piper, Worship | No Comments »
It has officially begun . . .
The Church plant that is to take place this year, Lord willing, on the East side of Raleigh (likely the Knightdale area) has officially begun. Well, it had officially begun along time ago, but now we have filed. The name that is registered with the NC Secretary of State for the church plant is Sovereign Christ Church.
We pray that even the name begins to communicate what we are about. We are called to make disciples of Jesus, our Sovereign Lord. He is the Head of the Church – no man. There is no pyramid-like hierarchy where one man presides over another. Rather, whereas some are further down the road of maturity, all are on the same path; all men and women in the fold of Christ are sheep – there is no division of class between leaders and laymen, no more than there is a division of class within the Trinity, since the images of roles, yet equality of the Triune Godhead are imprinted on the Church, as in the family; there is only One Good Shepherd, the rest are hirelings, who themselves depend on the Good Shepherd and will give account to.
We are Christ’s, not our own. We are dependent on grace. We are unworthy, but chosen. We are seeking satisfaction in Christ, in God – not in ourselves.
We are broken that this has begun. Might He be pleased in all we do, for it is unto Him that it is all done.
Pray for us, pray with us and celebrate the sovereign majesty of our Lord – may He come soon.
More to come . . .
Posted in One as Another, Paradigm Shift, Sovereign Christ Church | Tags: Church, Ecclesiology, Jesus Christ, Paradigm Shift, Sovereign Christ Church | 7 Comments »
Question on Dispensationalism, Israel and Continuity, part 2
Meagan wrote:
Rob,
how would you reply to the notion that dispensationalism is a relatively new (just over 100 years old according to some) belief, and that it is not biblical in origin? Also, why is it
so important to clarify whether the Bible is referring to Jews or Christians ( or both) when it speaks of the “church”?
Lastly, is 1 Cor. 15:52 the only passage from which to build a theology of the rapture, and specifically a pre-tribulational rapture?
ANSWER:
This second one is a very important question, in my opinion. The first answer must be that it is only important if the Text seems to make it important. I think the Text does indeed do this.
From the inception of the nation of Israel through Abram of Ur, God had designed a people to be distinct. For certain purposes, God made an “us and them” situation between Israel and everyone else. This distinctive puts Israel in a unique light by definition. Now, Paul works some of that out in Romans 3 by way of a side argument. This intersects what God is doing through the Gospel more in Romans 9-11. It is this intersection that many interpret the “mystery” that Paul speaks of very often being the Church producing Gospel. This is heightened by Romans 11:25 that indicates a time and position distinction for Israel, offset from the Gentiles (everyone else).
The key is always remembering that when you say “Jew”, you must think of both the individual AND the nation. Read the rest of this entry »